Government ‘gagged’ by salmon farming industry

from Sunday Herald, 26 December 2010

Pollution and health checks on hundreds of fish farms have been suspended and kept secret because the Scottish government was threatened with legal action by the £350 million salmon farming industry.

Angling groups allege that Scottish ministers have been “gagged” by the “bullying tactics” of the industry, while opposition politicians attack them for making an “underhand, outrageous and craven decision.”

Government inspectors are meant to check salmon cages across Scotland to make sure that they are not breaking the rules for treating infestations of sea lice. There have been allegations that some farms make illegal use of toxic pesticides.

But it has now emerged that the government’s Marine Scotland halted some audits in April after it had received a threat of court action from the Scottish Salmon Producers’ Organisation (SSPO). It also shelved plans to release the results of the audits, despite a ruling from the Scottish Information Commissioner, Kevin Dunion, that they should be published.

These controversial moves have been revealed by internal correspondence seen by the Sunday Herald. Marine Scotland told fish farmers in March that it was planning to publish the audits on its website in line with Dunion’s decision.

But the SSPO chairman, Phil Thomas, warned that companies wouldn’t hesitate to go to court if their businesses suffered as a result. “If you release audit information that contains any error, there is every prospect that a company will seek legal redress,” he said.

In response, Marine Scotland said that it would suspend the publication plan while the matter was reviewed. It also ceased sea lice audits, and has yet to restart them. The correspondence was obtained under freedom of information law by the Salmon and Trout Association, which represents anglers.

“The threat by the SSPO to bring claims for damages against Marine Scotland is, in my experience, unprecedented,” said the association’s lawyer, Guy Linley-Adams. “It is a clear indication of just how impotent the authorities are in the face of the salmon farmers’ bullying tactics.”

The association’s chief executive, Paul Knight, added: “This saga gives the lie to Scottish government’s contention that the salmon farming industry is properly and effectively regulated. It now appears that the industry is calling the tune.”

The Green MSP, Robin Harper, pointed out that populations of wild salmon around fish farms had long been declining. He accused ministers of a “striking dereliction of duty” by “caving in” to the fish farming industry.

He added: “Year after year successive governments have stood by while our wild salmon stocks have been decimated, but this is a new low. It is an underhand, outrageous, craven decision.”

The Scottish government confirmed that some audits had been halted. "An inaccuracy was pointed out in initial sea-lice audits carried out by the Fish Health Inspectorate,” said a government spokeswoman.

“As a result, a review of these is now underway and they have been stopped to allow us to get the procedures right. We believe this is entirely appropriate, given the problems highlighted.”

The spokeswoman denied, however, that the industry was inadequately regulated. Fish farms were still inspected to check that salmon had not escaped, and the industry on course for the lowest number of escapes since public reporting began in 2002.

The SSPO chief executive, Scott Landsburgh, said: “The purpose of the correspondence from SSPO to the Scottish government was to ensure accurate reporting emanating from Marine Scotland.”

One of the fish farms which objected to audits being published was Loch Duart at Lairg in Sutherland, which brands itself as a “sustainable salmon company”. It demanded that it be shown the audits before they were published to check for errors.

“If that constitutes bullying then I’m surprised,” said the company’s managing director, Nick Joy. He admitted, however, that there had been escapes from the farm, but denied that’s why they didn’t want the audits published.

Comments

[Fr. Peter]

Industrially farmed chickens – industrially farmed pigs – industrially farmed milking cows all needing drugs, including antibiotics like penicillin and, we also have industrially farmed fish.

The estimates for the US are that 50% to 80 % all antimicrobials are not used by doctors to treat sick people or animals but are added to farm animal feed, mostly in sub therapeutic dosages. Public health researchers are convinced that this non therapeutic use is building dangerous genetic reservoirs of resistance. If they are right, industrial agriculture is fostering and dispersing drug-resistant bacteria that impair medicine's ability to protect the public from them.

Industrially farmed fish; OK, I am not fully up to speed here Rob, are these treated with medication to control Sea Lice, because if they are the medication will be present in and spread by their faeces.

The part of your post that concerned me most was the Phil Thomas comment “If you release audit information that contains any error, there is every prospect that a company will seek legal redress.”

Sounds like bullying to me...

[caroline McManus]

What better a time to stop eating fish